Network devices can provide a variety of network control or connection functions in a network. For example, routers may forward data units through a network, firewalls may provide security services, and gateways may be used to separate portions of a network.
One particular type of network device is known as a WAN (wide area network) accelerator. WAN accelerators may be used to improve the performance of wide area networks. WAN accelerators are typically installed by administrators at a number of locations. For example, the main office WAN accelerator may be connected to multiple branch office WAN accelerators, or a branch office WAN accelerator may also be connected to various other offices via counterpart WAN accelerators. WAN accelerators may use a number of technologies, such as data compression, data prefetching and caching, application-specific acceleration, and/or policy-based bandwidth allocation to improve the perceived performance of the WAN for the locations at which the WAN accelerators are installed.
Manufacturers of network devices, such as WAN accelerators or other network devices, may occasionally release upgraded software for their network devices. It is desirable that users that have purchased the network devices be able to take advantage of the upgraded software with as little disruption as possible of the normal operation of the network device. This can be a particularly difficult goal when the software upgrade may be subject to cycles in which the manufacturer of the device would like to replace the operating system of the device.